Lima2000 - October 7 - 8

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After more than one
decade the greatest bodybuilding event in Latin America came back to Lima, this
was an non-miss event for any practicant or just aficionado of the muscle sport
, the best athletes from this side of the world joined in the turbulent Peruvian
capital, it is right to say that there were nearly 70 representants from almost
every country of the continent congregated in the Convention Center of Hotel
Crillon, a huge place but with the inconvenience of not
having descendant seats like theater, which turned difficult the vision of
the stage, many back seats were empty, although, a good númber of people
attended, not only Peruvians but foreign people who came to cheer for their
participant compatriots.

In general we could see a great diversity of physiques, so
much as abysmal distances between contenders, incredible physique stolen from a
comic book posing side to side with very inferior level athletes. The tournament
counted with the presence of the indefatigable Rafael
Santoja, left arm and official representant of the "Master
Blaster" Ben Weider, also with the special exhibition of the Brazilian
champion Jose Carlos
Do Santos, who posed as a guest showing excelent symmetry and a very
complete body for someone at his height, although he wasn't more impressive than
many of the 90 kgs. mass monsters we had just seen before, it was heard that Nasser El Sonbaty
would make a surprise appearance but it was just a rumor.

Fitness

Watching the fabolous colection of bodies over the stage one could see that the
polpularity and quality of fitness in this region keeps growing, the
Brazilian team which stood out presenting the most complete squad: Rossana Miller
and Giuliana Malacarne, after hearing the surname of the later (Malacarne
translated into English means something like Badbread) many guys felt desire to
prove if that bread was so bad as it's last name said, sorrily no one had that
audacity. "¿Malacarne? ¿where?" was what I head from a observe, Malacarne
and Miller looked beautiful and with a wonderful shape, also stood out the very
pretty Bolivian Mariel
Diamond, owner of an unbeatable symmetry, every one of her bodyparts were
developed to perfection and her dynamic
routine made her the Fitness Champion. Many people who came closer to this
fitness queen from the Andean high plateau had the luck of shooting a photo
with her, she was super sexy and friendly with the fans, nevertheless when you
stared closer at her, ouch, it would not hurt her if she could make a time to
depilate a little, it was like that diamond one more polish, who offers himself as
volunteer to polish her?. Talking more seriously we think this girl and many
other have a great potential to reach very high in the sport at world levels.

One girl with a very well worked body was Berenice Chávez
from Mexico, there was another beauty but
we don't remember her name.

Between the anecdotes there was a moment when a
competitor during her routine she performed as a
karate girl, she broke a wooden board, but when she knocked the board it
flew into the audience hitting one unlucky judge, I think that she could not get
a high placing, I supposed a decision made under stricktly sport criteria.

Back to the state of fitness we can say that there has
been a great step forward in this sport and this was confirmed that day.

Bodybuilding

Hardly one can object that female bodybuilding has been
going through very uneasy times lately with all of the crap we read on magazines
and bodybuilding media about the "death of this sport", I frankly
wasn't expecting much from this side of the sport, and this is in spite of the
fact that I am lifelong admirer of female muscle; that las tournament which I
attended was about 4 years ago, where of the very few contestans, only two
looked like bodybuilders and both were not spectaular, so I was quite
dissapointed since I expected more.

In this ocassion it was just the opposite, when we saw the
FBBs walking into the stage one by one all of my doubts vanished. By the way it
was natural to expect that this competition summoned excellent competitors. In general
it was surprising to check the level of the female bodybuilders from this part
of the world. Like I said before clear contrast were noticed between them, there
were women with incredible bodies flexing beside ladies simply in good shape,
however the final balance is more farly positive and shows that beyond
difficulties and the obstacles that frequently has to confront, female
bodybuiling keeps pumping strong and flexing hard in Latin America.

Lightweight Division

Ladies - under 52 kgs.

Rosa María del Carmen

el salvador

Claudia Carrasco

chile

Maria Franca Gutierrez

venezuela

Mariana Jimenez

argentina

Inés Ramirez

uruguay

The first weight category was made up of women physically
closer to fitness, there was Rosa Mª del Carmen, an atractive
Salvadorean who sadly lacked the volume and definition of the other girls; Claudia Carrasco
on the other hand was giving signs that she had followed a very strict diet
since she looked very hard, this Chilean woman displayed a good
pair of biceps and a detailed back, lately this woman won the Mixed Doubles
category. A stupendous symmetry assured
a deserved victory to Maria Franca Gutierrez, although in definition
Chile's Carrasco overcame her, as for volume the muscles of the Venezuelan looked
fuller and rounded, and her general shape the most appealing
to the eyes, this added to her impeccable presentation long and shiny blonde
hairdo. Argentina's
Mariana Jimenez was more or less in the same note of the Salvadorean
contestant, sorrily a full floppy disk caused me to lose her routine while I
replaced it.

One athlete that I liked very much was cute Inés Ramirez
from Uruguay, >>>
who despite her short height exhibited a good muscular development, nicely
shaped biceps and triceps,
art of work back full of muscles
plus a very sensuous and
dynamic routine were the features which made her shine all this mixed with a
pretty face with a mischievous girl look. Her weak points lie over genetic
factors, her torso is quite long
therefore her legs look short which severeky affects her overall symmetry, we
expect that with the right training she could hide and overcome this
imperfection.

Middleweight Division

Ladies - under 57 kgs.

Silvia Vasquez

el salvador

Lidia Otero

¿...?

Gianinna Madrigal

méxico

Jeniffer Rivero

¿...?

¿...?

¿...?

In the middle weight category the competitive level
improved and and here things were very clearer, great looking Gianina Madrigal
was the clear queen of her weight class, even flanked
by two taller ladies but both less muscular than the Mexican girl who was
the center of all the glances, previously she had the kindness to gift us with
some beautiful poses, there were many people -cameras in hand- behind us
trying to get some pictures of this beauty, the kind of who you don't see
everyday. Well, back to the stage she placed at the center of the line up and her
physique commanded over her two rivals: at her right Lidia Otero
showed good shape but needed more muscularity anyway, her biceps
are remarkable. At Gianina's left was Jeniffer Rivero, we must say that
this lady has a great potential, she has tiene unas very
sensual and feminine lines and with more training we have a future champion
on sight, by now she needs more general definition and volume in the upper body,
her legs are one the best with voluminous quadriceps but alas, zero in
separation. Her body of svelte lines and her beautiful face made me compare her
to Anja Langer, y hope that with time and good preparation our friend Jeniffer
could become a muscular queen as fantastic as her German counterpart.

Well,
now it's turn of Gianina Madrigal,>>>
first it'd be a crime not to mention that she looked
so wonderful with this hairdo and that suit, we don't know her exact age but
she has a fresh teenager air and a very flirty attitude; regarding her posing,
she plays with so much elegance when shoting her poses included the mandatories,
about her symmetry she could improve if she could develope more her lats and her
legs so she can optically reduce her waist, it is exactly in this point is where
she excells posing in a very sensuous
way. The muscularity of this young woman is simply spectacular but
overall aesthetically very achieved, perfect balance between volume and detail,
more than good arms, biceps at full,
hard triceps, powerful built torso,
prominent cuádriceps shredded and
separated like rock when contracted al ser flexionados, calves muscles hard as
diamonds, and a nice and hard booty.
Every single muscle displayed with fine style, but (there is always a
hateful but) her abs need more relief and the long and playful tails of her hair
ocassionally hid interesting parts of her traps on her back poses. Apart from
this this bodybuilding girl owns a very complete package helped by an excellente
performance and presentation which made her the unquestionable winner of her
division.

Heavyweight Division

Ladies - over 57 kgs.

Sorayda Figueroa

puerto rico

Miriam ?

paraguay

Marisol Almena

méxico

María Meza

méxico

Karla Requejo

perú

Carola Nostas

bolivia

The best part of the show is coming up. As we expected the
most impressive women played in the división of more than 57 kilogrmas, but the
expectation went thoroughly surpassed when the participant stepped into the
stage in front of an impressed audience, we were honestly surprised and
astonished after the muscular level of this line up, the most numerous: 7
amazons from 6 countries, some athetles in this category that -I'd dare to say-
got few to envy to her U.S. and European iron sisters, you could see the biceps
and triceps in their arms, iron
thorax boxes, impenetrable abdominal
walls and legs like greek columns. This was the first time we witnessed
so much female muscle together, and that was very exciting, I couldn't stop
shooting the choke of the camera, now, imagine the horror the battery indicator
tells me that I just had 10 minutes of battery life, I was just so fascinated
with all that I have seen that I didn't care to check the batteries - these are
special lithium batts not easy to find in regular stores - so I tried to dose
and save fotos for the best scenes, I don't know how did I get it but the camera
lasted even after the posedown of the 'heavies', it was a moment of excitation
and loads of anguish. Here in Peru, October is considered as the month of the
miracles... now I know why.

But let's better talk about muscles, like we said before
with so much overwhelming bodies in this class, the judges must had a grueling
and complicted labour, neverthless, by comments we've heard around, an epic
battle was seen to come between the spectacular Marisol Almena
from México and
<<< the surprising Karla
Requejo, twice Miss Peru and the only local exponent in female bodybuilding,
consequently the ovation she received was tremendous "¡Vamos Karla!"
("Go Karla!"), "¡Aprieta
Karla!" ("Squeeze Karla") were yelling that unceasingly
emerged from the crowd. Until them all that I've seen from Requejo was this
photo in a local sports magazine last year where she looked with good muscles
but nothing else, but the Karla I saw that day pero la que ví ese día left me perplexed,
it is INCREDIBLE how much this woman has beefed up. Karla version 2000 showcased
a massive musculature, wonder-power legs
the best of the whole tournament with those tremendous
quadriceps, protuberant biceps and
huge like Andean mountains, tight waist with nice
abs, a descent vascularity and striations. One thing that calls my attention
is how this country such a hell of an athlete, we who live here didn't know
almost nothing about her before. One of the most amazing bodies onstage
no doubt about it, it is not strange that the crowd would not keep quiet
after her placing was announced, very sound boos and protests filled the
convention center after the judges announced her at third place, at least I was
surprised, I was expecting if not the first place though the second, but third? mmm
well, it'd be excellent if she had win for her people from a country which
dessperately needs a sports victory. Karla herself confessed she was a bit
dissapointed with her placing after the competition, we heard that it was
because the lack of resources to purchase products to help her to burn fat and
water. However this case didn't prevent her to be the more requested by the multitude
of photographers and fans, if she keeps improving this way, we think we soon may
find her on the major stages of the sport at world level, we just hope she gets
the support she needs to reach the higher levels in her sport, because talent is
what she has more than enough.

Another competitor which shone with her own
light was Porto Rican Sorayda Figueroa>>>
who clinched the second spot, at first I didn't think she must be over Karla but
when I saw her closer posing for the photographers I could see why she placed so
high. She displayed muscles with deep cuts traveled by detailed
veins. The big amazon from the small island showed a superb symmetry, hard
as rocks muscles and a good
development in the upper body, specially in the deltoids.
We are expecting to get more of her and the bodybuilding activity in the
Caribbean.

Mexican María Meza was the shortest of the line
and
one of the thickest, however
her lack of detail deducted the quality of her physique and the fact of stading
between the fantastic Karla and Marisol made her look like a yatch between two
transatlantics, anyway she showed a good muscular development specially in the legs
and calves well grown.

The last competitor being called into stage was Carola Nostas from Bolivia,
who displayed a balanced development
and nicely shaped muscles, specially
the triceps, but she was under the level of the other women in volume and
definition.

<<< Impressive
Marisol Almena looked simply spectacular, with incredible definition and stunning
presence in the stage, every bodypart perfectly muscled, despite not beign
as massive as Karla, she was superior in the definition area, all of her muscles
marked as a muscle chart, with deep cuts between them. Imposing Biceps; an
incredible six-pack the best in competition; very well shaped legs,
chiseled, long, you could clearly appreciate every
head of her quadriceps, we cannot forget her wonderful
back full of beautiful muscles, developing a bit more her lats would help
tremendously to improve her symmetry,
keeping her narrow waist, her muscles in general looked bigger thaks to her
small joints.

This Mexican bodybuilder displayed a fantastic overall
shape, we find it close to the shape of the three times Ms. Olympia Kim
Chizevsky of the United States, it doesn't hurt to mention that she looked
pretty, that hairdo fits her perfectly and her orange bikini charge the stage
with electricity.

Despite the home favoritism towards Karla Requejo,
we think Marisol, looked more than enough great to deserve the title in her
weight class and specially Marisol Almena blasted her opponents to
win the Overall Champion title, over her compatriot Gianina Madrigal
middle weights champ and Venezuelan Maria
Franca Gutierrez in the light weights. We think that the judges played right
this time, except perhaps for the controversial third place for Karla, but in
general they held a less accidented
work than in the men's category where it was usual to hear protest from the
audience while the results were announced.

We must say that it would have been cool if after the
contest she would have come out to pose for the photographers and the
fans. Many people were wondering if the chapion was going to get out.

We can proudly say tha many of the girls showed a superb
level in fitness and bodybuilding, which shows that the state of bodybuilding in
our region keeps getting higher, we just hope that they receive all the help
they need in their respective federations, definitely exists a great potential
which does not deserved to be no longer ignored. Many of these women may
become IFBB Pros, let's hope to watch them soon flexing between the best
female bodybuilders in the world.

Sidelines

One girl that stole powerfully my attention from a start was Gianinna Madrigal.
We present her with the trophy of the COOLEST GIRL of the contest and it goes
beyond the sport, she is super kind and simple and has a great smilees,
but there is one detail that I like very much of her, is that unlike her own
gender coleagues who after the show going outside to the streets covered
their muscles under their jumpers despite the heat of the afternoon, Gianina
went out the street with all the splendor of her muscular body uncovered, ready
for every unaware person to surprised and admire, We got to see her outside, she
was walking with some other persons, it was funny that she was the center of all
the glances in the avenue, the buses and the cars slowed when passing by her
side, sure she created a conmotion in the center of the capital city. It seem
that this playful gir enjoys altering the traffing of every city she visits,
definitely she is extremely self confident.>>>

Sorrily not the photographs resulted as we
wanted, most of the pictures in this page were taken a digital Sony Mavica, we
think it is a very handy and useful in cases like this when the pictures are to
be uploaded in the internet inmediatly and because of its simplicity it is
indicated to make family shots or in travels, but in the quality of the
shots, as you must have realized is not optimal for our purposes, we would not
recommend its use in bodybuilding or fitness contests, beacuse it lacks the
necessary definition to show all the details of the muscles, as the sharp
contrast they show under the spotlights got dimmed, We'll try to buy the video
and get some captures from it. Since the camera was borrowed it was the
first time I used a digital one and I still didn't understand all of its
functions, but that day I learned useful tip for the users of this device: when
spotting into the stage from far and the zoom is in use you'll notice that image
shakes and therefore the photos become fuzzy and with an unwanted movement
effect, to correct this is better to select the "PROGRAM" button in
the lower side until the golfer icon apears in the upper right corner of the
screen, this will make the exposicion time to be slower and therefore the image
will result appear clearer. Happily I discovered this feature on time, if not
all the pictures
would look like this one, if you
already seen it now you know what is to be short-sighted. We think that
althought it is more expensive is a best choice to take this shots with a more
advanced camera and even better it is professional.

Regarding the delegations even whe it was expected more from
Brazil this delegation responded in the fitness division, it was Argentina, a
traditional regional power in bodybuiding which this time dissapointed everyone,
personally we were eager to see live and direct the monumental argentinean women
we had seen in magazines; on the other hand the big surprise came from the other
extreme of Latin America: Mexico, the aztec delegation showcased a excellent
team specially in the girl side, in fact Mexico received the by far deserved
prize of best delegation, besides counting with the most enthusiast supporters.
Also many of the so called "small countries" of Central America
and the Caribbean presented good representants it seems that the sport of muscle
is going through a good moment in the North of our region.

On a more stylistcal note, due to the explosive popularity of breast implants
between female bodybuilders and fitness women, it was strange not to see much
girls with evident implants, like for example Denise Masino, not even in fitness
where beauty counts more on the qualifications. What we saw is the growing
trend of sporting blonde hair, considering that in our region there are few
natural blondes it is easy to deduct the massive use of hair dyes (and not only
in female competitors). We think there are ladies who look wonderful in blonde
but others would look better with their natural own hair or any other shade. It
is curious that the three winners of
bodybuilding by weight divisions weared golden hairs, it remarks that also the
judger prefer them blonde.

Once again the media dissapointed with its dismal coverage
of the event, most of them plain ignore it while other gave it a few seconds or
a footnote, but this was expectable. But we remember the last time this
championship was held in Lima in 1989, it was given much more attention, even
the state channel which taped it delayed, registered one of the highest ratings
in its history, I remeber the day after every one was talking about the contest.

We could see for ourselves how flas are the stereotypes of
bodybuilding champions of beign egocentric and arrogant, in fact all the
participants men and women were excellent and spent a good time posing for the
photos, signing autographs and meeting with the fans and supporters, showing
that behind those mythological physiques there are normal persons, of flesh
(lots of flesh) and bone.

Finally we enjoyed a high profile show, we were more than
happy after the event and we are seriously considering in saving money for the
trip to Asuncion, Paraguay next yeart where this same Iberoamerican Championship
is going to be held, really it is a great experience and deserves to be
repeated. See you in Asuncion.